Sloping Off - September 2004
One Member's Summer and
The Irvine X-it
by Terry Antell
Hello fellow members. I hope the summer has been kind to you AND your models. I'm always pleased to read the club mag, it keeps us all in touch during the summer months, as no monthly meetings take place. After my last scribblings, I bought a replacement for my Zagi. I hadn't realised how foam technology had progressed during the last four years!
My last Zagi consisted of all black EPP foam. My new replacement model is again EPP, but white. This model is made by foam injection into a mould. The result is a smooth surface wing that doesn't require any spray photo mount for the fibre glass tape to stick to. The wing size is as a Zagi, the wing section is quite different, and the wing core is thinner, too. All indentations for servos, receiver and battery pack are moulded into the foam (no cutting required). Two STANDARD size servos are required (not mini as the Zagi). I used Acoms servos, these fitted snugly. Also used was a 1200Mah receiver battery pack which has to be the flat pack type. Final item is the all important receiver. I fitted a JR 6 channel PPM as this was a good tight fit.
Nothing gets fixed as such. The elevons are made from medium balsa wood (I think better than correx, or equivalent). These are fixed to the wing using the fibre glass tape supplied with the kit. The modern glass tape is much lighter in weight, than that I had with my Zagi kit. Also supplied was a roll of white, and a roll of blue tape for finishing the model (you don't get a choice with the colours, may be red and white). I already had some black tape which I used on the underside of the wing. The top is red, white and blue, my local buddy, Neal, let me use some of his red tape.
I started preparing the model on a Thursday afternoon. On the Saturday I spent another few hours installing the radio gear. Sunday morning was spent covering the wing with tape. I flew the model on the Sunday evening, that was the 4th July. The box said the model weight would be 17.8oz. My model tipped the scales at 17.1oz (another first for me, beating the stated weight). This is noticeably lighter than my all black Zagi. The box said fly in 4mph and upward winds. I have actually flown in 46mph! She penetrates the windy conditions extremely well; also, she floats in light breezes too!
Cost? £44.95, or cheaper. (Remember the 10% club discount at a few model shops) This includes wings, tapes, elevons and plastic wing fins. Also included are the linkages for the elevons. Small pre-cut pieces of correx are also included for covering the servo hatches along with the battery and receiver compartments. It's recommended that the battery is connected directly to the receiver, omitting a switch, this I followed.
One tip. (Pun intended). The winglets are held in place using the fibre glass tape, well, they should be. I covered my wing tips with tape, I then used Evostic to instantly fix the tips to the wings. It worked! Now the winglets don't keep slipping as the tape lets go. All those who haven't flown a flying wing, take note. The ailerons are also the elevators, called elevons. Don't give either surface full movement. Allow 75% of elevator, the same for aileron. Why? Well, if you have the servos driving full elevator (up or down) you won't have any aileron movement, the same goes for ailerons. I have seen this error, and the resulting crash!
Of interest, I use JR gear and have two 3810 Txs. (with buddy box lead). Any Futaba or Hitech 6 channel Tx with mixing facility will negate the need for an on board mixer. As the photos are in B&W in the mag I'll explain the colours. Red tips, then red, white and blue on the top surface. Black, white & blue on the lower side so I can see it more easily! (Poor old sod!).
My other new model is an Electrafun. It's a 400 pusher type trainer rudder elevator model, super fun though. If you are reading this as a potential new comer to flying R/C models I recommend giving this pre-built kit a try. It comes with 2 micro servos already installed, along with speed controller, receiver, 380 motor, rechargeable battery, battery charger and transmitter. Total cost = £99. I would suggest you buy a 4 channel Tx as this will give you throttle control with the rudder and elevator controls all on the right hand stick. Any club instructor will then be able to take control! The Tx supplied has rudder and elevator on separate sticks, power is from an on/off switch. New wing is £8, fuselage with push rods installed £10, tail end parts £6. Buy the model as replacement bits, plus servos, and save the cost of buying the cheap radio gear included in the box! The original radio was only 27meg.
My flying buddy, Neil, has fitted a small, cheap, digital camera to his ElectraFun. The photos of Barton are rather good and with the model at around 600 feet it's possible to see around 2 miles. The coastal shots are excellent and extremely informative, well, for us coastal flyers.
I eventually upgraded the motor to a 480, well, it only costs £4.80 so nothing lost. I could only get a 7.2 volt version. The original appears to be a 6 volt jobby. Okay it doesn't rev so hard but has good power. The flight time, using the same 600Mah 7 cell pack, seems about the same as before.
